Helping refugees who might be staying in mixed homes

25-1-2016 | IslamWeb

Question:

In my country in Europe, a lot of refugees are coming right now. There is a refugee reception/temporary home for youths who come by themselves. Now, there is a job where you can work there to help them, for example, by explaining things, making namelists, etc. Is this job halal? I do not exactly know how they live; for example, if they mixed the young men and women etc, and I have to registrate them in this home, would that be like I helping in sin by registrating them in this home? If they are not mixed, is it then halal to work there and help them?

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Answer:

All perfect praise be to Allaah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allaah and that Muhammad, sallallaahu ʻalayhi wa sallam, is His slave and Messenger. 

The basic principle is that there is no harm in registering and making name lists of the refugees. Rather, the doer earns rewards for that good deed because this is part of helping these refugees and facilitating their affairs. The fact that the concerned officials may gather young men and women in one place does not make registering or helping them unlawful.

We believe that there is no religious impediment to your work as long as it does not involve a violation of Islamic law such as being alone with a non-mahram (permanently unmarriageable) man in seclusion or prohibited intermixing between men and women and it is confined to registering the names and giving them the needed instructions and guidelines.

For more benefit, please refer to fataawa 84281 and 83607.

Allaah knows best.